Succession of Burgant
Succession of Burgant
Opinion of the Court
These appeals were taken from a judgment sustaining one item on the administrator’s account and rejecting another, both of which had been opposed.
The administrator placed himself upon the account “for services rendered to the deceased at $12 per month for 20 years, $2,592.” This was rejected by the lower court.
“She came and asked me if I wanted to take charge, she was too old and could not attend to it any more; that I wouldn’t lose anything by it. Q. Was there anything further said about it? A. Nothing in particular, outside of saying, ‘you know I will always do what is right to you in my will.’ That is the only thing she ever told me.”
When asked: “Why didn’t you deduct your commissions then (at the time of the collection of the rents)?” he answered: “She was such a funny woman, your honor, that I didn’t want to do it.”
There is no evidence whatever of any contract between the deceased and the administrator as to the payment of any salary or commission for collecting rents, etc., to be paid during the lifetime of Mrs. Batmale or after her death. The witness does not claim that she said that she would remunerate him in her will.
The claim is evidently an afterthought;
“She said that she would not give me anything now, but later on would recompense me. Q. When was she to recompense you? A. When she died, of course.”
But the witness does not state that the deceased had stipulated that she would recompense her in her will when she died.
■ Albert, the brother of Miss Pourcade, did not agree with his sister, for he said that:
“The condition was' she was to go there as servant and she would compensate her (his sister) in her will.”
Amd he further says that his aunt said to him:
“Tour sister certainly has been good to me, and I will certainly compensate her in my will.”
The witness Joseph Pourcade again testified:
“She always promised when she made her will she would do what was right towards us. Q. When you say ‘us,’ who do you mean? A. Me, my brother _ and sister. Q. Did she ever do anything about the services rendered by your sister? A. Tes, very often, she would say about it. Q. What did she mention in connection with them? A. She intended to give her a little more than the others. Q. Por the services she was rendering to her? A. Tes, sir. Q. Was any of that conversation in the presence of your sister? A. Well, that I can’t remember.”
Whatever may have been said to the witness Albert Pourcade by his aunt does not appear to have been said to Miss Lucia Pourcade, who did not testify to any promise made by her aunt to remember her -in her will. On the contrary, she said that there were no conditions of her employment, and that no. stipulations as to wages were made at all.
Nevertheless, the duties performed by Miss Pourcade were very onerous and very helpful to the deceased, and the small claim, $30 per month, is most reasonable; and will be allowed for one year prior to the death of the deceased. The other heirs hied a plea of prescription of one year to the claim. Succession of Fellon, 145 La. 967, 83 South. 208.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed, that the judgment appealed from be amended by reducing the item due Miss Lucia Pourcade from $6,480 to $360, costs to be paid by the succession.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Succession of BURGANT
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) 1. Executors and administrators 221 (5)— Succession; evidence held not to establish contract to remunerate nephew for collecting rents. Evidence that a nephew of decedent who was engaged in business had collected her rents for her without charging any commission, and that he had not been promised any compensation for such services, though he testified decedent had told him she would do the right thing by him in her will, held not to establish a contract by decedent to pay for those services, but to show that they were gratuitously rendered. 2. Executors and administrators 221 (5)— Succession; evidence held to sustain allowance to niece for nursing. Evidence held- to sustain an allowance to a niece of decedent for services in nursing the decedent which were very onerous and very helpful to deceased, though there was no evidence of promise by deceased to the niece to pay for such services; but such allowance must he reduced to services rendered during one year prior to the death where the heirs filed a plea of prescription.